Happy Hearts!

Dear Families,

Many thanks to all who contributed in some way to our Valentine's Day pancake breakfast!  It was a wonderful way to begin our Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, February 20th we will join all the other RMCS students and staff to attend the UVM Women's Basketball game.  We will be eating lunch at the basketball game, so please send your child with a lunch from home or they may purchase a bag lunch from the cafeteria. 

On Friday, March 8th the four second grade classes will attend Rosie Revere, Engineer at the Flynn Center.   Chaperones are not needed for this trip. 

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~Drinking mint tea in Farm to School
~Gathering new opinions by looking at pictures
~Capture the Clock
~Iris and Walter
~Using meaning to read fluently

Have a great weekend!

Katie

100 Days of Second Grade!

Dear Families,

It's hard to believe we have been in school for 100 days! 

Reading:  We began a new unit in Reader's Workshop.  This week the children learned strategies for building reading fluency. Reading with fluency is one of the most important skills for second-grade readers, because reading fluently helps you understand what you're reading.   Strategies that were taught were; reading aloud to help in-the-head reading voices, scooping up words into longer phrases, and reading dialogue tags to help read dialogue with expression.

Writing:  This week the children began writing opinions about our reading.  Students chose a character from a book they love, that they have a strong opinion about.  Then they

Math: This week students learned how inches, feet and yards are related and used yard strings to measure objects in the classroom that were about 1 yard, exactly 1 yard and longer than 1 yard.

Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  We will be celebrating by having a pancake breakfast and passing out valentine cards to classmates. If your child chooses to participate, there was a class list in their folder last week.  Please make sure they include one for every classmate.

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~A day in the life of a city child and country child in Japan
~Measuring in yards and Twelve Snails to One Lizard
~Quick facts in Number Corner

Have a great weekend!
Katie

Inches & Feet

Dear Families,

We had a slight case of cabin fever due to being inside so much this week, so hoping for warmer temperatures next week!  Thanks to all the acts of kindness completed this month, we filled our class Marky Mark jar!  Students are invited to bring in a toy (non electronic) from home, for a 'toy' celebration on Monday. 

This week we continued our measuring unit in math. We began the week by using non-standard units to measure distances and lengths in our classroom.  We read Jim & the Beanstalk and used giant feet to measure distance.  Then students cut a piece of string to match the circumference of their head.  Next, students used their head string to estimate the length of other objects around the classroom, and then measured each object with color tiles.  Students then made inchworm rulers and measured things in the classroom that were shorter than, longer than, and the same length as a foot.

We began our opinion writing unit this week by reading Stella Writes an Opinion.  The students learned how to state an opinion, two reasons that match their opinion and a closing.  If you received a letter from your child in their take home folder and would like to write back, that would be wonderful!

Our wonderful room mothers are planning a pancake breakfast for Valentine's Day!  If you are available to volunteer in the classroom from 7:45 - 9:00, please let me know!

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~Our class read aloud, Gooseberry Park
~Final character book project
~Habitat stations
~Susan Laughs and changing perspectives in Guidance

Have a great weekend!
Katie

Dear Families,

Even though it was a short week, it seemed very busy!

Special thanks to Mrs. Baer and Mrs. Clark for teaching us all about how animals adapt in the winter! Below see how the children worked to help their animal "adapt" to the cold winter air.

In this month's Farm to School lesson with Ms. Meg, we learned about spaghetti squash and made a delicious spaghetti squash saute.  Check out the recipe on our school website. 

This week we completed our Nonfiction writing unit.  To celebrate, we shared our nonfiction books with Mrs. Mahl's class.  It was fun to see how many different topics the second graders wrote about! Look for your child's writing to come home in the next few weeks.  Next week, we will begin a  Persuasive writing unit. 

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~Using the splitting strategy to add two-digit numbers.
~Habitat stations in science workshop.
~:Learning about character change from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse and Oliver Button is a Sissy

Have a great weekend!
Katie

Changing Perspectives

Dear Families,

This week we were very fortunate to be a part of two inspirational presentations focused on peace and celebrating differences.

On Thursday, members of the SBHS Diversity Union joined our school for a celebration of MLK Jr. Day.  They taught us this important message from Dr Martin Luther King Jr. "PEACE is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold."

Today, we listened to a speaker named Sam Drazin.  Sam is an educator born with Treacher Collins Syndrome (similar to the character Auggie,  from the book/movie 'Wonder'). Sam works for Changing Perspectives, Inc. a not for profit organization, whose goal is to help everyone recognize their own challenges and to help promote understanding, respect and acceptance of all people.  Sam visited with the first and second grade classrooms to talk about empathy, kindness and what it means to be different.  Ask your child about it!

Your child might have mentioned working with a new Word Study teacher or having new Word Study words.  Before the holiday break, I reassessed all children using our Words Their Way spelling assessment.  Based on that assessment, your child may be working on new spelling patterns because they mastered the previous or continuing with the same spelling patterns because they need more practice with the pattern.  Let me know if you have any questions!

In math we wrapped up our subtraction unit.   To practice for our subtraction assessment, the children worked in groups solving various subtractions problems and puzzles, in order to escape from Emoji Island.  Check out the escape artists below!

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~Draw, Add & Compare in Number Corner
~Cross country skiing in P.E.
~Gooseberry Park
~Putting yourself in your character's shoes
~Publishing a nonfiction writing book

Enjoy the long weekend!
Katie

Be Kind in Your Mind and In All That You Do...

Dear Families,

We hope you are enjoying the kindness calendar at home, as much as we are in school!  I have seen lots of acts of kindness in our classroom this week!  This week we learned a poem about kindness and made kindness cards. 

In Math we wrapped up our unit on subtraction by focusing on distinguishing between take-away and comparing problems. Students continued using the open number line to solve these problems.  Next week we will complete an end of unit assessment.  In Number Corner we continue our work with rectangular arrays.  Today students wrote array riddles using rows and columns for a partner to solve.  Check out the pictures below!

 

On Monday we began a new guidance unit, "Changing Perspectives."  Our school has chosen the theme of “Changing Perspectives” to help our students gain better understanding of differences and disabilities. We are collaborating with Sam Drazin, Executive Director of Changing Perspectives { www.cpne.org} and former teacher. He will be presenting to all our students in grade level meetings on Friday 1/18. Each week, Mrs. Wheeler and her intern Ms. Bedell will be incorporating their curriculum into their weekly class time with us. They will read a book with our class and discuss the importance of the uniqueness and value of each member of our school community. While we will be learning about various disabilities, our focus will be on recognizing each person’s strengths. To celebrate our learning, we will be organizing a disability awareness hands-on workshop. We will set up stations to simulate various disabilities and invite students to experience daily actives without being able to see, walk, hear, or use their fingers. In first and second grades, each student will create a booklet to demonstrate their learning.

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~~Our probability container - what fraction of the tiles will be red? More than half?  Less than half?
~Not Your Typical Dragon
~New Word Study groups
~Character traits

Have a great weekend!
Katie

Kindness Counts!

Dear Families,

Happy New Year! Today your child should have brought home the sharing letter for the month of January.  Today we took time to write 'happy notes' to share with others. 

Next week we begin the winter creative arts schedule.  Hopefully we will get more snow!  The children will be going outside on Wednesdays for an hour of cross country skiing.  Please make sure they have winter gear every Wednesday.

Reading:
This week we continued to get to know the characters in our books.  We learned how to notice not only what a character says, but how they say it.  We also started to collect words to describe character traits.

Writing:
As we move into the second part of our nonfiction writing unit, the children explored two new structures of nonfiction writing:  question & answer, and how-to books.  They chose one of these types and began writing a new nonfiction book using this structure.

Math:
This week the children practiced using the open number line to solve comparing problems.  They learned that they can jump forward or backward on the number line to solve these kinds of problems.

In our first Engineering task of the new year, the children were given marshmallows and toothpicks and work cooperatively to design an igloo! 

Other Things to Ask Your Child About:
~The Fact Strategy Game
~New Year's Resolution song
~The Weeping Werewolf

Have a great weekend!

Katie